5 comments:

My general view of teachers is quite good. My general view of teachers' unions is very bad. Stories of clearly BAD teachers being protected by unions and paid to sit in a room somewhere 9-5, or maybe worse, paid to stay in the classroom, while students suffer the resulting budget and personnel shortages. "Teachers' not worth the name who cannot teach, but have tenure (easily obtained) and cannot be fired.

And variations of these stories cross industries.

Then start adding stories of Jimmy Hoffa and corruption.

Overall, I'm quite sympathetic to the middle class and earning a decent living. I am not nearly as sympathetic to unions, who so often seem to abuse their positions and protect the unqualified.

Jeff, understood, but the trend of both data sets is very interesting.

Ken, the failures you mention are real. However, just as in corporate America where we don't allow the failures to set us in judgment against all, so here the good accomplished by collective bargaining has been important and significant.

And, I didn't have any profession in mind--teachers are but one group affected positively by organized labor. Who will stand up for workers if they aren't willing to do so for themselves in a world that demands above all else higher return to bottom line and the lowest prices possible.

What the graph shows is that while union membership declined from approximately 28% to 12%, the percentage of income that fell in the middle 60% of the population fell from 52% to 46%. In other words, one declined by 57% while the other declined by 11.5%. Only by manipulating the scales, did the graph maker manipulate you into thinking they were similar slopes.

Larry James' Urban Daily

A repository of ideas, resources, commentary and opinions concerning the issues facing low-income residents of the inner cities of the United States and how mainstream America largely forgets or, worse, ignores the day-to-day realities of urban life for the so-called "poor." Written and edited by the President & CEO of CitySquare. Please visit CitySquare.